SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Department of Health has confirmed a case of a cat in Taos with the plague.

State officials said the cat was most likely infected while hunting [auth] rodents and prairie dogs in an open field named Sunset Park. A second cat from the same area was brought into a veterinarian this week with plague-like signs.

Plague is a bacterial disease of rodents and is generally transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas. But it can also be transmitted by direct contact with infected animals, including rodents, wildlife and pets.

State health officials said last month that a 78-year-old man from Torrance County was the first human case of plague in the United States this year. He later survived.